Memories from the Shed Project

2019-Present
Project exploring the significance of personal childhood memories.

Project Overview

'Memories From The Shed' is a project about my childhood memories of being on the allotment with my grandad, dad and their friends. This is a vivid memory of my childhood because it was a pass-time I joined in with regularly, ultimately giving me a creative outlet. That said, I am also fascinated with how memories and places link. For me in particular, I have viivd memories of the people who I was around on the allotments and I still have that feeling or connection to the place today. Now that my grandad and most of his friends are no longer with us, the only thing that is left behind physically are the sheds they made together. This project is about documenting those sheds from old photographs and from observation, showing how they have changed, aged and altered. I believe they are physical representations of the memories I have with my grandad, making it a very important place to me. I have documented the sheds, both from their exterior and interior through drawing and painting.

Fineliner Drawings

Fineliner drawings are a big part of the current project because they allow me to depict the exteriors and interiors of the sheds at a high level of detail. I have focused my larger pieces on the interiors to show how nature has reclaimed one of my grandad's sheds. Drawing gives me the opportunity to capture each building in their actuality. Capturing textures is also a big part of the fine liner drawing because they form the basis of the intricate line work. Also, the level of detail provides a really interesting contrast to my paintings.

Oil Paintings

Painting is a consistent feature in my practice. This is a process that I feel extremely comfortable with and has been an integral part of this project. Painting allows me to produce work with fluidity, while still capturing fine details. I see my process of producing paintings as a constant work in progress; every painting challenges me in new ways, be it in technique, mark making or colour mixing and application. In this project I have been challenging myself with painting from observation, or at the very least documenting colour for me to use as a reference alongside the references I use. this has allowed me to capture the sheds in accurate form. You will notice that both my paintings and drawings of shed exteriors have no background on them, but rather an expanse of white. I am heavily inspired by artists such as Allison Moffett who uses negative space to create unity and balance in their works. I think having negative space is also very important in my work to compliment the level of detail I put into the structures.